


A Gift of Peace

by hardcore_like_eezo



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:08:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23603578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hardcore_like_eezo/pseuds/hardcore_like_eezo
Summary: Shepard’s birthday ends up falling on the same day as a historic ceasefire, and Garrus and Tali can’t help but tell everyone.
Relationships: Female Shepard & Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
Comments: 8
Kudos: 40





	A Gift of Peace

**Author's Note:**

> I've typically been bad about writing anything in time for N7 Day or Shepard's birthday, but with all the quarantining going on, I took advantage of the time at home and put something together this year (and hey, it's still April 11th where I am as I post this). I hope you like it, on Shepard's -134th birthday!

_April 11, 2187_

Birthdays had an old habit of being disappointing for Shepard, and more often than not forgettable.

As it was, she could only recall one birthday from her childhood in the orphanage. They didn’t improve much when she entered her teens. The sorts of birthdays she imagined other youth her age enjoying were never what she experienced while running with the Reds, so she grew accustomed to letting the day come and go without any announcement on her part, as long as no one else brought it up either.

Her eighteenth birthday was an unforgettable anomaly, of course, when she marched straight into a recruiting office for the Systems Alliance.

Birthdays became more tolerable in her twenties. The soldiers she served with were good people who celebrated birthdays in a manner she approved: drinking games and good-natured chaos. She could stomach a birthday that consisted of time with friends—and nothing else. No presents, no cards, and no traditional games that risked reminding her of the sorts of parties she never had as a child.

But the math stopped lining up a few months after turning twenty-nine. Dying one year and returning two years later had a way of doing that. Miranda pointed out that Shepard’s body arguably started aging a few months before she woke up. Her body was mostly living on its own without technological assistance by that point, in case she wanted to factor that into her adjusted birthday. Instead, Shepard used that as more reason than ever to dismiss the relevance of April the eleventh.

She hadn’t lived on Earth in more than ten years. Ten _Earth_ years. Why should it bother her if the measure of her age in Earth’s solar revolutions had been complicated?

As long as birthdays had continued their habit of being disappointing, Shepard made a habit of forgetting them. The distracting war that had raged with the Reapers for months on end now made that even easier, to the point where she’d forgotten what day it was as she sat upon the surface of Rannoch.

“Mind if I join you two?”

Shepard looked up at Garrus’s approach and waived him over to bask in the tranquil view of the desert. The light of Tikkun was setting amidst a growing indigo twilight. Tali’s mask still rested in her hand as she dangled her feet over the ledge and savored the free air.

“You’re not going to catch anything from us, are you?” Garrus asked as he sat down next to Shepard.

“As long as you stay at least two meters away, I won’t worry,” Tali said without a care as she stared across her homeworld with an unfiltered view.

Sliding her hand onto Garrus’s, Shepard said under her breath, “Sorry if I scared you back there.”

She nodded towards the fallen Reaper behind them.

“That’s alright,” Garrus said, taken it in stride with his characteristic ease, “I only had a small heart attack. Don’t worry. I’ll get you back.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

One of Garrus’s mandibles pulled back in a sly smile.

“It might be sooner than you think.”

Shepard jerked her head towards Tali at the muffled sound of her stifling a laugh.

“What are you two scheming?”

“Nothing,” Garrus drawled, his subharmonics deceivingly disarming, “Now relax. You deserve it. You just killed a Reaper and brokered peace between the quarians and the geth—plus it’s your birthday.”

“It’s my—?” Shepard did a quick mental check on what day it was. Yes, April eleventh checked out as memory served. She glared at Garrus, then Tali. “What have you done?”

Her omni-tool chimed with a new message. Before she could light up the device, it chimed with three more. It then started chiming in such quick succession that it nearly sounded like a single continuous tone.

It only took five seconds for it to stop as Traynor jumped in on the comms, “I got it, Commander. Just had to apply a quick filter. Anything wishing you a happy birthday is now going to a separate inbox that won’t notify you. So far, I’m seeing more than one thousand messages…wait, make that two thousand…never mind, it’s just picking up speed.”

“What—who are they from??”

Before Traynor, Tali, or Garrus could say a word, Shepard twisted around at the sound of footfalls jogging up behind them.

“Commander Shepard!” Admiral Raan said, her eyes glowing with a smile from behind her mask, “I just saw Tali’s message. I had no idea today was your birthday. And on the day our war with the geth has ended of all days!”

Instead of turning on Tali, Shepard pinched her mouth and looked at the culprit to her left.

“I didn’t think Tali knew when my birthday was either.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything, given what you’ve said about birthdays before,” Garrus said. Shepard could see his mandibles twitching towards a smile as he made a concerted effort to keep his face neutral and placating. “But then you went and faced a Reaper on foot and ended a three-hundred-year war. I couldn’t say nothing after that.”

Tali cleared her throat, “And I might have broadcast it to the entire fleet. My people are feeling very grateful right now, if you hadn’t noticed. It seemed a good time to mention it.”

“Oh, it’s not just the quarians,” Traynor chimed in again, “Seems the geth understand that birthdays are something we celebrate. You’ve received a single congratulatory message endorsed by the entire geth consensus.”

“Speaking of consensus…” Raan was now sitting next to Tali and had also removed her mask for the first time on the homeworld. “I’ve submitted a proposal to the Conclave that we rename one of the Liveships after you. I don’t expect the decision to be finalized for some time, but it’s gaining consensus quickly.”

Despite the initial scowl of resentment that came to her like a reflex at the mention of her birthday, Shepard’s brow relaxed and she managed a slow smile for Garrus, squeezing his hand in appreciation.

“The rest of the crew is planning on cake and drinks once we get back to the _Normandy_ ,” Garrus said, leaning his head onto hers, “I know you and birthdays don’t usually get along, I…I just wanted to celebrate you. Thanks for being a good sport about it.”

“Actually,” Shepard said, turning her eyes skywards, “I wanted to say, sorry I came across like a grump at first.”

The last rays of day had faded, giving way to the expanse of stars, and the glow of countless ships in orbit. There were no more flashes of canon fire or exploding ships, only the entirety of the quarian and geth races flying side by side. Down on Rannoch, the silence was deafening and beautiful in its stark contrast to the cacophony of war. At least here, on this world, there was peace.

If she had a cake and candles in front of her right now, this is what she would have wished for. All she wanted, all she needed, was to be still and let the feeling sink in, with her friends at her sides.

“This might be the best birthday I’ve ever had.”


End file.
